Simone Biles is at the top of her game at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and she might be ready to do it all over again in four more years.
“Is this my last? Definitely [my final] Yurchenko double pike,” Biles, 27, quipped during a Saturday, August 3, press conference after winning her third gold medal in Paris, naming the vault she executed hours earlier. “I mean, I kinda nailed that one.”
Jokes aside, Biles said to “never say never” regarding a potential 2028 return.
“The next Olympics is at home [in Los Angeles]. So, you just never know,” the gymnast said. “But I am getting really old.”
Thus far, Biles has won three gold medals in Paris. On Saturday, she finished in first place during the vault event finals days after winning the All-Around. Her All-Around victory made her the oldest champ since Maria Gorokhovskaya in 1952 and it was Biles’ second time winning the honor.
Biles was also on the winning squad in the team event, alongside Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera. Biles will also compete in the individual event finals for beam and floor exercises later this weekend.
The Paris Games were a major comeback for Biles, who previously withdrew in the middle of the Tokyo Olympics four years ago when she suffered “the twisties.”
“I didn’t have a bad performance & quit,” Biles wrote via Instagram Story in July 2021. “I’ve had plenty of bad performances throughout my career and finished the competition. I simply got so lost [that] my safety was at risk as well as a team medal. Therefore the girls stepped up and killed the rest of the competition & won silver.”
She added at the time, “I also have no idea how I landed on my feet on that vault bc if you look at the pictures & my eyes you can see how confused I am as to where I am in the air.”
After refocusing on her mental health, Biles returned to the competitive gymnastics circuit in 2023. Earlier this summer, she made her third Olympic team.
As Biles prepared to tackle the Olympic mat again, she made sure to stay calm and collected.
“I’m really nervous, that’s to be expected,” she said in a Friday, August 2, TikTok video, filmed before the All-Around finals. “I did have therapy, so I feel a little bit better. I just worked so hard mentally to get to this moment.”
